Best Place to Purchase Mac Pro-Buying Questions

I posted earlier about getting a Mac Pro and now that the new one is out I'm ready to purchase. I'm still trying to decide if I'll get the base model or if I will downgrade to the single Quad Core chip. Would it make a big difference in energy use? I don't really need 8 cores at this time but may in the future.
I also want to add the Wi-Fi option. Is this something you have to add at time of purchase?
I will be upgrading the memory on my own along with upgrading the 320GB drive to 750 GB and adding 2 1TB Hard Drives using RAID.
Now for buying, I am willing to wait and either buy it at the Apple Store or go online. My only problem is with taxes I'm going to pay a lot on $2799. I'm considering going online. I've seen places like Amazon and Macmall. What are some good retailers to look at? Since I'm buying a base model I'd likely to think it will be easy to find at one of these stores but my only concern is being able to get the Wi-FI BTO option. I may even wait and try to purchase at the Apple Refurbished Store but because of business needs I'm not sure if I can wait the 2 months or so.

I posted earlier about getting a Mac Pro and now that the new one is out I'm ready to purchase. I'm still trying to decide if I'll get the base model or if I will downgrade to the single Quad Core chip. Would it make a big difference in energy use? I don't really need 8 cores at this time but may in the future.
I also want to add the Wi-Fi option. Is this something you have to add at time of purchase?
I will be upgrading the memory on my own along with upgrading the 320GB drive to 750 GB and adding 2 1TB Hard Drives using RAID.
Now for buying, I am willing to wait and either buy it at the Apple Store or go online. My only problem is with taxes I'm going to pay a lot on $2799. I'm considering going online. I've seen places like Amazon and Macmall. What are some good retailers to look at? Since I'm buying a base model I'd likely to think it will be easy to find at one of these stores but my only concern is being able to get the Wi-FI BTO option. I may even wait and try to purchase at the Apple Refurbished Store but because of business needs I'm not sure if I can wait the 2 months or so.

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Get everything but the wireless from 3rd parties.

It's cheaper to buy a 750GB hard drive on Newegg.com than it is to do the 320->750 upgrade through Apple.

In a few weeks, once heat-sinked FB-DIMM DDR-800 gets popular, it'll be more practical to buy it aftermarket from OWC or any of a dozen other places than from Apple. Make sure the memory is heat-sinked.

Finally, RAID. You need to think about whether you need hardware RAID. Leopard can do RAID0 and RAID1 in software (which is only slightly slower and $800 or so cheaper). Not knowing your situation or plans, I can't comment on whether or not you need/want a RAID card, but don't plop down for one unless you know you need/want it.

Finally, RAID. You need to think about whether you need hardware RAID. Leopard can do RAID0 and RAID1 in software (which is only slightly slower and $800 or so cheaper). Not knowing your situation or plans, I can't comment on whether or not you need/want a RAID card, but don't plop down for one unless you know you need/want it.

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I'd also suggest thinking long and hard about whether or not RAID is even something you want. RAID is a great solution for avoiding downtime, but with the advent of Time Machine I don't think it's the best solution for avoiding data loss. If your concern is the avoidance of data loss then RAID might not make the most sense.

RAID is not a backup and RAID is not a good tool for preventing data loss or corruption. RAID is merely a way to allow your machine to hobble along in degraded mode in the event of drive failure to minimize the disruption you face while you make arrangements to replace the failed drive. It won't protect you against the much more common screw-ups like corrupted files, accidental overwriting or deleting of files, or other mundane user mistakes.

I'd wager that the majority of users would be a lot better off with a giant Time Machine volume than with a RAID1 mirror for their system.

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